League of Legends Should Be Dead By Now

kak can use that Rumble will be picked up a going to come in here comes your ination the right why is League of Legends so dominant this Titan came out almost 15 years ago and it still has more viewers and players globally than almost any other but what's odd is that League's creators weren't developers and the game they made in the beginning was far worse than their competitors but Riot knew something everyone else didn't and it started when they found themselves playing Warcraft 3 to this day Warcraft 3 is considered one of the most beloved games of all time creating a real-time strategy experience to rival greats like Starcraft and Age of Empires but Mark Merill and Brandon Beck weren't booting up Warcraft to play in RTS they're playing a fan-made mod that changed one of the maps from an RTS game mode into something fresh a team-based top Town game with just one character and abilities the goal of the mode was to destroy the other team teams ancients hence the mod being named DOTA now DOTA wasn't the first MOA ever created but this is where the genre's identity was really formed you had Lanes Towers waves and minions leveling a champion farming for gold and so much more it's baffling how many of the MOBA Staples came from DOTA the game just kept evolving different versions and mods of DOTA came out and the community settled on a final version DOTA Allstars but just like all other games that began as mods it was extremely inaccessible first you had to buy Warcraft 3 for $60 then you had to navigate the custom browser to play DotA Allstar and because the game mode was exclusively multiplayer the only way to set up games was through an online Forum or searching servers for a full Lobby and after all that work trying to find a game the load times were Beyond hellish but even with all these issues players loved DOTA and two College roommates kneed deep in the game set out to unshackle the game from Warcraft 3 Maryland and Beck would take this inaccessible yet popular game and release it as something new but there was a problem the two friends weren't game designers they were both business majors from USC they had passion for games and we were early members of lots of online game communities whether as Dragon Realms in Brandon's case or you know Ultima Online neverquest in my case but no experience making them so they began hiring talent to help them bring their Vision to life a new DOTA which they called Onslaught the newly found studio called Riot games was EST abl lished in an old converted machine shop under an interstate overpass humble beginnings to say the least to help achieve their vision marily and Beck hired five permanent team members in some interns including Steve Ginsu one of the original designers of DOTA Allstars F like the founders was excited about building a mobile game unconstrained from blizzard so with little experience in development or teamwork for that matter Riot games worked for hours to create a project that they could show at the 2007 game developers conference in San Francisco some of the team managed full-time studies on top of 40-hour work weeks scrambling to put together something presentable for the conference but something sat on the shoulders of Merill and Beck building a new DOTA wasn't their only focus studying business had given these Founders a totally different perspective than the rest of the gaming industry and Riot's two Founders wanted to do something unheard of with their game they wanted to give it away for free how can you make money with such a stupid idea and how can can you not make money with such a brilliant idea this wasn't a thing in North America or Europe at the time you bought a game at full price played it and then bought another one but in Asia it was totally different most games like maple story were released completely free making money through in-game purchases this was partly to combat widespread piracy in Asia look at me sure I'm the captain now but it also had some massive implications price determines demand for a product games with high price tags have a natural barrier to entry limiting your player base but free-to-play games don't have this problem they maximize Demand by minimizing the price to zero this was Marilyn Beck's idea they looked at DOTA as a live service instead of a modded product they knew there were thousands of dedicated DOTA fans but to really move Beyond a n genre which also had a large learning curve their game needed to be free to play planning on making money by monetizing in-game Cosmetics like skins but there's just one problem most of North American Publishers were scared of the free-to-play model even though it was prominent in Asia it just wasn't a proven business model in America yet and Publishers hated giving content away for free so Riot building a new game with an unproven business model was just too risky and Publishers were out um I hate it I'm out every publisher Riot went to was confused by the concept they would ask where's the single player why is it free to play what console will it be on none of them understood the vision or business model the path forward was obscure and unknown but the Publishers lack of faith may have been the the biggest blessing for Riot since MarBeck wouldn't compromise on freeo Play and No publisher would back it they decided on a different approach they would publish the game themselves but to do that they needed money lots of it so they went to investors here they found some people that saw their Vision individuals Unshackled by the trends in the industry for context the game wasn't good at this point nor did it have appealing assets or visuals I come in they have nothing they had a wireframe kind of they had a design and they had a pitch and they started to go through their pitch and it was unbelievable but investors could see the business model and the gem Riot had created now renamed to League of Legends clash of the Fates and they understood not only the free-to-play concept but they understood how to bring an audience to the table to prime the pump of freeo play so Riot secured millions in funding not because their game was good but because of the business model the threat of closing their doors was finally gone but their challenge was far from over Riot had a tough battle ahead because another team was hard at work developing a competitor S2 games also saw the potential of mobas and were collaborating to create their very own Standalone game called Heroes of new worth they had something Riot didn't experience maril Beck knew they were in trouble Heroes of new worth had more polished art animations and VFX not to mention here's a newworth had some of the original people behind DOTA including OG Creator ice frog Merill and Beck were distraught and it got even worse when both companies offered a free pre-release around the same time players compared Rides mobile with S2 and it couldn't be more obvious which looked better Heroes of newworth dwarfed League of Legends immediately pulling in double the numbers well hang on youve just no I like it this is brilliant but I like this nothing was going Riot's way and League appeared to be down and out but then something happened that gave Riot hope S2 announced that Heroes of newor would be full price game $30 on release half the player base left immediately many MOBA fans in Southeast Asia couldn't afford a full price game why keep playing a game if you couldn't buy it so many moved to riots free MOBA new fans around the world poured in many from Asia but also from the west where players were eager to try this brand new game for free a rare thing to see in the states and when League of Legends officially launched as free to play it exploded in popularity [Music] in its first year the game brought in over $1.3 million the next year 17 million then 85 million the following the game was skyrocketing Marilyn Beck only expected around 20,000 players at Best but they were getting Millions League was very similar to DOTA but it wasn't the game that made it blow up it was the model and we can see that with their competition although heres of newworth lost half their player base they still decided to release a full price title believing like the rest of the western Publishers that freeo play wouldn't work this blunder widened the Gap even more between these two mobas and after a year of lackluster sales the studio behind Heroes of newworth went free to play but by this point only 500,000 players had purchased the game while League of Legends was sitting at over 32 million new players and Counting which game do you think players stuck with but even when Heroes of new worth went free to play it didn't seem like they truly understood the business model many Heroes didn't have purchasable skins not to mention the game had very few cosmetics and they didn't seem concerned with adding more Heroes of new worth copied freeo playay but they didn't understand the intricacies behind it which would bring them problems for the rest of the game's lifespan this goes to show that Riot had something special and they understood what others didn't they understood the model and the free-to-play model allowed them to dominate the mobile genre even though their game launched worse than every single way League was rde and high but dark clouds were on the horizon companies saw how well League of Legends was performing and tons more mobas began popping up all of them copying Riot's business model valve had bought the rights to DOTA and released Dota 2 in 2012 and in 20110 blizzard announced their own MOBA called Heroes of the Storm which would release 5 years later there were plenty more all adopting the same free-to-play model but how do you survive against Behemoth like valin blizzard the answer competition Riot meticulously crafted the perfect competitive experience that kept players hooked in mid 2010 Riot added ranked a competitive game mode where players could rise to the ranks between bronze and platinum one of the first of its kind especially in the mobile genre Riot had one goal Elevate the perception of the competitive experience while there was a large casual audience for League Riot was trying to capture people who had heaps of time to invest in the game the sweats these were the players who would play league for hours climbing ing the ladder and purchasing in-game Cosmetics bro you have thousands of games per season on this account do for you don't go anywhere Riot had the most addictive gameplay Loop fueled by players who had that competitive urge thousands of hours for sunk into League learning Champions adem bills and Niche interactions making the cost of switching to another MOA difficult off me stream sniper as long as League continued to scratch that competitive itch play players weren't going anywhere so Riot kept players on the hook consistently investing into a competitive side of the game every ranked season brought Heroes and overhauls to game modes using data to measure how players interacted with champions in the game and these are not just the old players trying out to see if they like the new one uh these are players like myself analyzing what was working and what didn't they were eagerly listening to their audience more so than any other developer all of these changes and new content kept these dedicated fans around they weren't always on the money fix the game but What mattered was the commitment which far surpassed any other developer of a competitive game at the time which brings us back to Riot's competition S2 was struggling to keep Heroes of new worth alive the game had a much steeper learning curve and very few Heroes offered an easy experience for new players whereas in League you have a collection of Champions that offer an easy way to get into the game like Annie Master ye Garen many more Heroes of new Earth was nearly impossible to get into even when it was free to play and S2 wasn't the best at making it easier instead of making the game more appealing the studio released another mooba in 2015 called Strife so already their attention was spread thin but what was worse was their dedication to maintaining a competitive environment there was little done about toxic players bugs and Broken Heroes not to mention the UI and client remained untouched for years right however with league as their only game consistently improved the exper experience but one of the biggest differences was s's lack of support for the competitive scene something Riot games was more than willing to provide [Music] Esports and they kicked everything off with dream hack World Championship 2011 when fanatic would take home the winning prize of 50,000 an unbelievable amount for the time this would later become Worlds the biggest annual Esports event in the world to get it the NEX they're trying to burn it down not going to be enough it's not Ro Tigers back with game two Riot was one of the first to invest into the Esports scene big events high production values and massive prize pools giving players an example to look to which raised that competitive ceiling even [Applause] further League of Legends Esports became a juggernaut every finals pulled in millions of viewers viers thanks to the rise of digital platforms like twitch and YouTube seeing all of this as a Heroes of new Earth player why would you stick around and many didn't League lent itself perfectly to the competitive scene including streamers and content creators who would show off their incredible skill or something else entirely oh come on are you kidding you could find dedicated players for your favorite Champions and most of the time you had a few choices the more popular the game became online the more people wanted to play it with friends stream stream it or watch it players were sharing their favorite highlights either dunking on their friends or Shoring off some incredible moments in the ranked ladder League became its own marketing engine but on the other side of the Ring their old competitor fizzled out sadly heres of newor closed their doors on June 20th 2022 but all this begs the question how is League of Legends still a juggernaut today every other competitive game began doing what Riot is doing pushing the pro scene attracting sponsors and hosting huge events while the action of these companies look similar to League Riot's goals are totally different today League of Legends is still at the top of twitch while other Esports scenes like OverWatch or dying Riot still has the biggest esport event in the world so what is Riot doing differently the answer lost leadership this is where a company strategically loses money in one area in order to gain more profit in another for example a grocery store might sell milk get a loss but make profit on all the other things you buy while you are there it's common in retail but can apply to all kinds of businesses including video games League Esports scene is not profitable in fact it never has been these events they put on do something important they elevate the competitiveness around League of Legends which compels players to buy more Cosmetics that's why League Esports continues to be huge while other scenes like the OverWatch League are shutting down blizzard was trying to grow profits in Esports while Riot was trying to grow profits in League of Legends but it doesn't end there Riot has has applied the strategy all over the place using lost leadership to generate buzz and raise brand awareness since 2014 R has worked with popular artists to create viral songs for worlds each year in 2014 they worked with Imagine Dragons the next year Nikki Taylor then Zed and many more these songs Garner hundreds of millions of streams and occasionally billions R has applied these techniques to all aspects of League from competitive events in Worlds to World building and characters with Arcane on Netflix they even Ed these techniques to promote in-game characters who were falling behind in popularity none of these viral techniques need to be profitable instead they all help grow the brand hey let's make a K-Pop group so we took four Champions we put them in a K-Pop group we gave them new looks new skins in our game and a lot of players who don't typically play a collie would go and flock to this further encouraging people to trial out the game and giving existing players all the more reason to keep playing additionally these marketing Ventures have brought in new generations of league players people are exposed to all these viral songs or shows and are intrigued to try playing the game people who never tried League of Legends pick it up these were crazy business moves but they paid off Riot is focused on keeping the league brand fresh and appealing and the best part this strategy isn't a fluke Riot has done the same thing with their new IP valerant viral songs High budget animations and huge Esports events tolerant isn't as globally popular as League yet but it's providing the same brand perception and allows the game to stay fresh and appealing and has even provided some opportunities for cross promotion with Arcane Cosmetics being found in both league and valerant Riot games are possibly the best marketers in the gaming industry they know what keeps players coming back and they know how to keep people talking about the game all of this shows that it's not about the game itself it's about the model and the brand you're building around the game this is why League of Legend will never die do you know what else will never die Super Auto pets don't let the title deceive you this is one fun competitive game in Super Auto pets you build a team of cute pets with unique abilities you battle against other players and everything is at your own pace and this chill free to play Auto battler you can pick up a copy of Super Auto pets on Steam and Mobile stores go check it out and support the Indie Community thanks

Channel: Going Indie

Views: 1,297,136

Keywords: going indie, video game business, video game marketing, game devlogs

Id: 7EZu9NoWV5k

Length: 17min 22sec (1042 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 19 2023